Eight is Great! (Unless you have allergies)

I woke up early today to make the treat that Louie was bringing to school for his 8th birthday. I had a vague memory of being woken up overnight by Louie because his eyes hurt and his lungs were burning, but it didn't click that it might be more of a subtle overnight ailment that woke him up from his slumber.

I should have known that of all the kids Louie complains the least and if he was waking me up overnight he must not feel well. But it stinks! Who wants to miss their birthday at school? Charlie and Louie have been hit the worst with allergies this year, with poor Charlie waking up a few times with his eyes swollen and even glued shut. I gave Lou some medicine before we left for school, but he was so upset on the ride there that I couldn't make him go into his classroom.

Oh well...hopefully the treats will still be tasty tomorrow and Louie can relax today and we'll enjoy some family time tonight.

Louie, age 7

When Louie came into this world the day was much different than today. It was wet and chilly without a ray of sunshine. Today is a bit cooler than it has been but the skies are blue and the sun is shining brightly. I really hope he feels better to get outside and enjoy the day, but with me apparently not understanding allergies, going outside later when it's warmer with all the pollen probably isn't a great idea. Just because I've been a mom for eight years doesn't mean I know what I'm doing...

I would imagine that many parents feel like their first-born is their guinea pig. I have not a clue what I "should" be doing and I am just hoping that he is not being scarred because of it. He seems to be doing ok but I know that is in spite of parenting!

Eight-years-old today and feeling not all that great.

Louie is thoughtful and caring; without thinking twice he helps out his friends and siblings; he constantly thinks about and plays baseball; he still loves Star Wars, but now also loves Angry Birds and is a bit obsessed with Harry Potter. He hasn't perfected the use of the bicycle yet (a parental fault), but is a great swimmer as long as he has his goggles and loves to go exploring and is such a great artist.  He'll tell you his favorite subjects are reading and writing (stories), but he has such a curious mind for science.

My first-born is growing into himself and each day he makes me proud to be his mom. Happy Birthday, Louis Victor!

P.S. Here's another birthday memory from when Louie was four. How fast they grow!
P.P.S. Ok, here's Lou at five. I'm enjoying revisiting the past today!

Erin Go Bragh

 Saturday was a glorious day to be celebrating our semi-Irish heritage. I'm pretty sure Kevin is 100% German, but from what I understand my dad's family is German and Hungarian and my mom's is German, Irish and a tad of Native American. We just celebrate all the holidays so we don't leave anyone out!

Plenty of playing outside and yard work was done before going to Mass Saturday night where Louie's PSR class was introduced to the parish before their First Communion. We came home to grill out some specialty chicken Daddy whipped up with corn on the cob, shrimp, and asparagus. And that's green apple juice. Not much Irish in that, but it was great for the summer-like day.

 Part of my day was spent making a surprise cake that when you cut it open you see a rainbow inside. I found it here last year after the holiday was over and vowed to make it this year. Could have been a better rainbow, but the kids and Kevin knew what it was supposed to be!

In case you were wondering, this is what happens to your tongue after green icing and green apple juice:

Unfortunately, all the hard work the boys put into their leprechaun traps was for not. That leprechaun made a wreck of our house (some might say that the he must come to visit more than once a year...) and trashed the traps, but did leave some delicious chocolates wrapped in gold foil. The boys are already designing their traps for next year!

Celebrating Valentine's Day

 We started off the holiday with a special breakfast. Often, the "special"-ness comes from the fact that Mommy hasn't been to the grocery and has to use her imagination with a limited supplies of goods. So we had pink-dyed eggs with sausage links and toast with a heart cut out of it. They were pretty excited about it.

The kids went to school with their special valentines for their classmates. They had little baggies filled with goldfish crackers with a tag that read, "Our friendship is GOLDEN" on it. Benny gave us all a surprise when he pulled out a valentine he received last year (yes, he is a hoarder; and yes, he comes by it honestly). It was a lenticular valentine showing two different puppies. (Spell-check is saying that it is spelled wrong, but I got the word off of the boys' Star Wars puzzle that call it that.)

Well, Mister Benny takes a Sharpie and blacks out the "To" and "From" for whomever gave it to him and then writes his own name. He then gets a bag of sunflower seeds to give to this special girl in his class (she plays softball so it makes more sense to him to give it to her than goldfish). At the party that day (according to the little girl's mom) she didn't realize that Ben had given her a special valentine and was sad that he didn't give her goldfish. Luckily, he had an extra bag that he was going to keep for himself, but shyly slid it over to her. Later, she wrote him a thank you note for the seeds.

That night we had a candlelit dinner with all the kids and had this red velvet cake for dessert. It was such a lovely day!

Gung Hei Fat Choy!

  Happy New Year! Daddy got back from his trip to China just in time to celebrate Chinese New Year, and this is the year of the dragon. He brought with him decorations like the little dragon above that he gave Meredith.

 We tried to eat a traditional New Year's Eve meal so we had noodles and oranges which are considered good luck, chicken and vegetable stir fry, and egg rolls. Kevin said that he didn't have egg rolls, though, or even saw a fortune cookie on either of his trips.

I told the kids that there is an animal assigned to each year and of course they wanted to know what animal they each are. They then made a puppet for their animal. Louie is a monkey; Benny is a rooster; Charlie is a pig; and Meredith is an ox. Charlie and Meredith liked each others, so that is why it is switched. (And, in case you were wondering and I know you were, Kevin is a dragon and I am a horse.)

I do not remember why Charlie is crying in this picture...but the rest of the kids are having fun!

And this is a sign Charlie painted at school for Daddy's homecoming.

Christmas in Columbus

 Here are a couple pictures from the start to our Christmas Week (literally, two). We got a new video camera and spent more time taking video than taking pictures. So strange for us, but it's about time! These little voices and personalities are starting to change and grow and I'm worried about forgetting them, as I've said hundreds of times before!

Baby G is coming this May and we wanted to make sure that he was going to 

follow in is mommy and daddy's footsteps and "bring it."

We had a relaxing weekend, playing games, eating good food and starting off the week right. I can only imagine what next Christmas will be like, when there's a cousin for the kids to play with! There were pictures taken on the video camera, so if I figure out how to get them off of it, there will be more to share!

A Partial Family Picture

I apologize for blurriness in this picture, and the lacking of half our family! The other half didn't have everyone looking and I thought I could zoom in to see how cute the kids were...and how sick Louie was! Meredith loved walking down the aisle with Charlie and Gracie, and Charlie was a trooper, for normally not enjoying being the center of attention. I didn't get to see Benny and Louie walk Grandma down the aisle, but heard they did a great job. I hoping that soon someone shares some more pictures of this special day!

A Handful of Shots

 One day soon this will end. Probably next year, when Charlie goes to kindergarten and I throw him in the shower every night with the big boys. For now, we'll capture these two water monkeys and all the mischief they get into while taking a bath.

 Benny and Charlie were proud of the Lightning McQueen puzzle they finished. I tell you, those puzzles that change the picture depending on what angle you're looking at it (the term is escaping me at the moment...) are not easy! They have a Star Wars one featuring Darth Vader that had me stumped before I realized I was attempting to put a "light saber" piece in a picture of the "Death Star."

 Meredith is the best little helper you could ask for. She's always wanting to join in on whatever household activity I'm doing at the moment.

 Here, she is helping to make some really delicious pumpkin bars!

 This is a picture of me with my niece and goddaugther, Maggie. We celebrated her 1st birthday with a "Winter 1-derland" theme. Too cute.

Happy Birthday, Magnolia Jean!

St. Nicholas Visits

 It is a tradition in our house to put our letters to Santa in our stockings before we go to bed on December 5th and the next morning the letters are gone and in its place are treats left by St. Nick. It is assumed that St. Nick and Santa are buddies and he does us the favor of dropping the letters off at the North Pole.

 The kids found fruit, candy, and a Christmas activity book in their stockings. The boys also got baseball cards and Meredith had hair bows.

 I'm not sure why the boys wanted to stick their goodies right in front of their faces; maybe they weren't all that awake yet. One thing about St. Nick's Day is that there is no problem whatsoever getting the kids out of bed!

 I wish these pictures didn't have to be so washed out with the flash. It's such a nice morning, with the only light coming from the Christmas lights in the living room. One day we'll get a camera who has the ability to take non-shaky pictures sans flash.

 Later that night we had a special dinner--pancakes and strawberries! (Not going to the grocery entitles me to call whatever we have on hand "special" and then the kids get excited.)

 Charlie informing Daddy where to put the whipped cream.

Happy St. Nicholas Day! Christmas-fever has hit our house and we can only hope that Mom and Dad survive. Luckily, St. Nick left a letter informing the kids how "good" boys and girls act, especially during the Christmas season. Let's see if this works...

Introducing: Uncle Billy & Aunt Lisa!

 

Congratulations, Billy + Lisa! They were married on a brisk, but sunny December Saturday and a good time was had by all :)

 I'm embarrassed with the lack of pictures I took over my brother's wedding weekend. I'm posting what I have, even though only one includes any of the kids! The first is of us on Friday after we got mani/pedis, taking a break before the rehearsal and dinner.

 


Doesn't Lisa look gorgeous? I've never been to a winter wedding before and I love all the beautiful details they were able to include in connection with the season. Their colors were apple green and gold.

We got ready in her hotel room downtown at the Hilton, which is connected to the salon where we got our hair and makeup done. Here we are getting ready to have pictures taken. (Back of the dress shot; not entirely random.)

The reception was at the Glendale Lyceum, a beautiful and historic venue. I love that there was a library with a fire place, couches, and a 15-foot Christmas tree complete with ornaments as big as your head. You'd think I would have taken pictures of that as opposed to my husband trying to duck out of the shot.

Uncle Josh, Aunt Joanie, Aunt Erin, and Uncle Joe were all part of the wedding party, too. The wedding wasn't until 6:30pm, so all the pictures were taken beforehand and a bus was there to shuttle us around.

We get to the church and...the entrance for the bride and her maids was locked. It was about 30-degrees at that time, so these ladies are a bit chilled!

The church ladies let us in and we wait patiently for the ceremony to begin.

 It is difficult to take good pictures in a church, but Maria graciously took this one of us with my dad's family. Most of us look like a bunch of raccoons with those eyes...ha ha.

And poor Louie. Not long after this shot he was walking down off the alter and threw up in his hands. It was so sweet that he had the thought to catch it all! It was then that I noticed how white his face was and unfortunately the wedding was not the night he had hoped for. Louie loves to dance and all he did was sleep on the couch in the library by the Christmas tree until he went home with Aunt Cassie. I feel awful for him, but we do have two family weddings coming up in the new year so he'll have other chances to show off his moves.

 

To end, I'll post these two pictures taken from the newlyweds' room at the Hilton. It was neat to see the city from this angle, one I've never seen before. It was a beautiful, clear day, a perfect one to have for a wedding. Welcome to the family, Aunt Lisa!

Spooky School Days

Charlie's school celebrated Halloween on this past Thursday and it was such a crumby day outside that the did their "parade" into the hall in the school and performed their songs there. Although he did it quietly, Charlie sang each song and did all the hand gestures that went along with it--all with a big smile on his face!

Louie and Benny's school really lucked out with a brisk but sunny day for their parade around the neighborhood. I love that each class--Pre-K through 5th grade--dresses up and so do their teachers! Grandma went up to watch the parade with Charlie, Meredith and Thomas.

The classes went by so quickly, I barely got a shot of Louie as a Bengals player. The kids were supposed to bring make up to put on (I can only imagine a teacher trying to paint up an entire class's faces!), and Louie's zombie costume couldn't have been pulled off without face paint. But with a big Bengals win this past Sunday against the Seahawks, it was a great costume to have.

I caught a bit of Benny behind his classmates as the vampire with big purple teeth.

I wish I would have taken a picture of Thomas in his big scary werewolf hat, but this will have to do:

Benny called to me, "Hey, Mom! Thomas and Meredith have been holding hands the whole way home!" I turned to catch it right before they let go. Too cute :) Louie asked if they were going to get married. I told him that second cousins weren't far enough apart.

Time for Treats!

We have left the cutesy stage of Halloween costumes and entered into the scary stage. Louie wanted to be a zombie and Benny wanted to be a vampire. Charlie was Spiderman sans mask and Meredith brought back the Curious George costume--a great investment at $15 at Old Navy when you get four kids to wear it! I need to get a collage together of each of them wearing it...

Louie called himself "Road Kill" and had a whole story made up how he was killed and became a zombie (those are tire tracks on shirt). Benny's eyes are freaking me out in this picture. Surprisingly, Charlie was not as pumped as his siblings and halfway through the trick-or-treating. Not surprisingly, Mere was hamming it up for the camera and was really excited for the night.

Not really needed, but we got out the wagon for the collecting of loot. Meredith wanted to ride from house to house with Maggie and Gracie. She acted like it was her homecoming float, waving to everyone who passed by.

Gracie and Maggie showed up in their adorable costumes. Grace was Minnie Mouse, but had no interest in wearing the ears. She carried her bowling bag/treat bag with Minnie's image so there would be no confusion as to who she was. This picture was an attempt for her dad to give her "mouse ears."

Maggie enjoyed the wagon, although she also enjoyed the freedom of trying to throw herself out of the wagon as well. She didn't last long in there! She wore Grace's costume from last year, the cutest little garden gnome you've ever seen.

The cousins!

At the end of the night the kids went up to the neighbor's to get their picture taken with some great blowup decorations. And now Charlie's loaded with sugar and enjoying the night!

The kids were doing their best cat impressions.

And it's just not a good Halloween night if M&M vampire guy doesn't make an appearance.